BAGHDAD, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The leader of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood police unit was killed, along with his wife and two children, by a roadside bomb on Thursday, police said.

The bomb exploded in Udhaim, 90 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad in the restive Diyala province, killing Khdaier Abbas Azzawi, his wife, daughter and son.

Eight women, all relatives travelling in the same minibus with Azzawi, were wounded in the attack, police said.

Azzawi was a leader of a local Awakening Council, one of the neighbourhood guard units that man checkpoints and provide security across Iraq.

The Awakening groups, hailed by the United States as partially responsible for the decline in violence in Iraq, began in 2006 in the western Anbar province when Sunnis, fed up with al Qaeda violence, formed their own patrol units.

Anbar's success gave rise to Awakening groups across Iraq, paid by the United States. The Iraqi government assumed control of Awakening units in Baghdad this month, and plans to do the same in other areas in the future.

But many within Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government see the largely Sunni groups, comprised of many former insurgents, as a threat.

Many Awakening members have been targeted for arrest or attack in recent months. (Reporting by Aseel Kami; writing by Missy Ryan)

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